1. Technical Field
Example embodiments of the present invention relate in general to smart card service technology, and more particularly, to a smart card service method which virtualizes a smart card to provide the virtualized smart card in a cloud computing environment and an apparatus for performing the same.
2. Related Art
In a smart terminal including a radio communication function or a mobile communication function such as a cellular phone, a smartphone, a pad-type terminal, and the like, a smart card is mounted in the form of hardware for the purpose of security and/or authentication of a subscriber, and an authentication manager performs authentication of a user or a subscriber based on credential information obtained from the smart card.
The smart card may include personal information, a phonebook, message, download data, applications, personal setting information of a user, and the like as well as provisioning or subscription information for a cellular phone of the user.
Information of a user or a subscriber is stored in the above-described smart card, and therefore personal information of the user may be easily stored even when the user purchases or exchanges a new smart terminal, thereby easily replacing the smart terminal.
Meanwhile, as the number of smart terminals used by individuals is gradually increased, the number of smart cards which should be mounted in the smart terminal is also increased, costs for manufacturing the smart card are increased due to the increase in the number of smart cards in the form of hardware, and credential information of individuals becomes more difficult to be managed due to its dispersion.
In addition, since operating systems or applications installed in the smart terminals are able to easily access credential information stored in the smart card, important credential information of individuals may be leaked when the smart terminal is exposed to malicious attacks such as hacking or malicious codes.